Table of contents for The Cabrera-Willis Trade

Now that the deal is official, people have permission to speak freely. And the new Tigers sound pretty excited to be heading North.

Matt Sosnick, the agent for Dontrelle Willis, indicated that Willis is “incredibly excited” and that while the 2 sides hadn’t talked about a contract yet “He’s [Willis] hoping to stay in Detroit for as long as The Tigers will have him. He’s good friends with Jacque Jones, and is a big Pistons fan.”

Sosnick and Dontrelle were also both on WXYT earlier today and their interviews are available for download.

Miguel Cabrera and Willis were both on a conference call this evening as well. Some notes:

When asked about his struggles last year, Willis indicated he was a little banged up. But towards the end of the year he felt better and got his command back. He’s been working on his throwing program and thinks his arm strength is there.

Cabrera mentioned that he hasn’t had discussions about what position he’ll play, but he’s willing to do anything and he can’t wait to get out there.

Cabrera also said he’s already quite familiar with all of his fellow infielders and he is good friends with Carlos Guillen. The two live nearby in Venezuela.

Willis couldn’t believe that he and Cabrera were traded together, but thinks that it will help both of them.

Dontrelle said that he worked well with Pudge in 2003 and he’s excited to work with him again.

As for the cold weather, both just said “baseball is baseball” and that it didn’t matter to them.

And here’s a solution for the Inge dilemma: have him play third during Willis’s start and uh, let Willis bat for himself!
He slugged 140 points better than Inge last year and career-wise Willis only trails Inge in slugging by 35 points. I swear if you gave Willis 500 ab’s, had him concentrate on hitting, he’d have a better year than Inge.

If the Tigers cannot lock up Cabrera long term then this deal is awful. However, I’m sure with Illitch’s deep pockets the Tigers will be able to get a deal done. I just keep hearing though that Cabrera is the next players (other than A-Rod) to get a $200 million deal. He’s still so young and is already so good.

Coach Jim

December 6, 2007 at 11:40 am

Will his defense at 3B iritate us though? Comerica OF is WAY too big for him to play out there.

I also hope Miggy understands what an impressive career he can have if he controls his weight and conditioning – and how quickly it can all come tumbling down if he doesn’t.